2014 Review

2014 has been a busy year with the highlight being the Open Studios in May, where I had to say goodbye to some of my favourite paintings.  Of course, I am happy to see them go off to new homes and I hope they are being enjoyed as much as I enjoyed making them.



Being creative is very intense and early on in the year I was looking for something to exercise the analytical side of my brain.  I have been involved with textile work for many years and am particularly interested in the history of textiles. While researching ecclesiastical weaving, my interest was piqued by some tablet woven bands and I undertook to learn this fascinating and ancient art. 


My blogging has taken a back seat and take a step back from exhibiting while I spend some time building up a new body of work.  I am also experimenting with mixed media on the theme of "boundaries" and will post about that over the next month.

Pictish Creatures and New Work

It all started with just the one small painting, that is all I thought, what harm can one Pictish Cat do?  Before I knew it, I was doing another Pictish creature, a dragon this time.  It is OK, I told myself, one more won't hurt, I can give up any time I want!

Then there was the Pictish stag, everyone loves the Pictish stag and now I had to admit it, I seem to have some kind of addiction.  With slightly unsteady hands, I reach for more paint and yet another Pictish creature has, unbidden, formed under my brush, a goose and then a wolf and now the curious Pictish "beast".  Why can't I stop?  What is wrong with me?

So, here is something completely different, some strange woman on top of a hill, facing another hill, wonder who that is and where she is - and isn't she cold?

June Painting-a-Day Challenge

Is now completed!

I now have a super bunch of 30 paintings that represent a journey from my first experimental steps towards a more looser, abstract form of representing the landscape.

My paintings have, more often than not, been a very representational moment in time.  I have always, always, however, wanted to be able to paint my own feelings about a place, a sense of being in the moment, the atmosphere, the sounds, the light around me.  I knew I needed to work differently, I knew it would take a lot of effort and time to approach a new way of painting for me.  Which is why I set myself this challenge.

It was hard at first, although I was prepared with 30 compositions, it was unnerving to me to not paint every little detail, to use colours that I had only seen fleetingly, to try to represent atmosphere and feelings in a painting.

As the project continued on, though,  I began to loosen up and by the end of week 2, I had begun to get a feel for what I was doing.  During week 3 I turned a corner!  I began to be able to manipulate the oil paints wet-in-wet with much more confidence and used that to my advantage rather than trying to fight it and a greater confidence grew in my compositions and the way the brush applied the paint.

Of course this new-found confidence was short-lived and I stumbled a few times nearer the end, which is quite often what happens when learning new things in art - there is an almost step back before the final push forward, I have seen it and experienced it often.

So here they are in date order, all 30 paintings, one for every day of June.  All I can say is, thank goodness for the extended daylight hours we get at this time of the year!

 

Days 17 to 22

Just one week to go and my Painting-a-Day project will be complete.  It has been very successful and a lot of fun.  Here are the paintings from 17th June through to yesterday's (22nd June):

Half-way Through the Month

I have made it to Day 16 now and very pleased I have managed to paint every day, even if it means getting up early and/or staying up late to wash brushes!

Did I show you my nifty drying rack for the 6x6" boards? 

Whatdya mean it looks remarkably like a DVD rack on it's back?

I tried to photograph all of the paintings at the half-way mark (Day 15), but had lighting issues, so did a Photoshop compilation instead:

Here is today's painting:

I am really enjoying this project, I am learning a lot, trying out new things and generally working outside my comfort zone.

One Week

Day Seven is here and I am pleased that I am managing to continue to work on these every day, despite other distractions/commitments.  The longer daylight hours have certainly helped, I have got up early and finished late on some occasions. 

Here are days five, six and seven, all the small format, 6x6" of course:

Continuing the Painting-a-Day Project

I have to confess, I am a slow painter.  Working every day on a small painting gives me the chance to actually complete small pieces much faster than I would normally.

Sunday, just day two, it suddenly dawned on me that this was 30 days working with no time off! The sun was shining and I wanted to be out in it.  Fortunately at this time of the year, I get up early and go to bed late, so there was time to do both.

Here are days 2,3 and 4:

I am really enjoying this project - I am making an effort to be looser with my paintings, to express atmosphere, feelings and fleeting impressions.  I wonder what the paintings will be like on day 30, will I have learned anything?  I hope so.